This learning resource allows students to build their own virtual habitat, exploring different environmental elements alone the way.
At first glance it seems to be little more than a game, and in fact that is what it is. However, like many other games used in other curricular areas such as hangman in spelling and greedy pig in chance and data this too stimulates ideas and helps to cement learning.
Figure 1
As students work through the four changeable elements within the environment students discover, some elements are not normally found in certain habitats; for example if they opt to have it showing in the desert, a thought bubble appears above the animals head indicating that this is not ideal.
Figure 2
One aspect I quite like about this resource is the ‘compatibility meter’. It indicates how compatible a certain animal is to certain elements. As students change the habitat the meter also changes. This indicates how compatible the animal is to that habitat. For example a Beaver may be 47% compatible (figure 1) to a given habitat or 100% (figure 2). This means students are never wrong, rather the animal is not yet 100% happy.
Figure 3
This resource fits most of the criteria for evaluation; it is a excellent for students to revise and put into practice their knowledge and relevant vocabulary about vegetation, biome and precipitation. Conversely, it severs as a good introduction to a topic as it provides students with a very basic explanation of what a habitat is and allows them to explore, developing ideas and terms that they may not yet be familiar with.
There are aspects of this resource that are not ideal, yet easily over come. Firstly the home page is very busy and may cause distractions for little people, this is easily overcome by creating a shortcut on the desk top or in favourites linked directly to the intended page. Secondly the circular nature of changing the elements, means that once a students finds the ideal habitat for a given creature, there is no way of recording their findings. Combining this resource with a worksheet would allow them to record their information and provide something concrete students to refer back to later.
Figure 4
The resource is easy to use for year 3 & 4 student and can be used in pairs or independently. The instructions are written in an easy to read, direct manner using simple language. It is free to use and requires only minimal resource so will run on many computers at any given time. There are advertisements but they are only for games so do not produce images that are unsuitable for the primary school environmentthat and links to the games are covered by the Victorian Education Department’s internet protection blanket so students can not access the links.
Resource 2: Switcheroo Zoo
BUILD AN ONLINE HABITAThttp://www.switcheroozoo.com/games/habitatgame.htm
This learning resource allows students to build their own virtual habitat, exploring different environmental elements alone the way.
At first glance it seems to be little more than a game, and in fact that is what it is. However, like many other games used in other curricular areas such as hangman in spelling and greedy pig in chance and data this too stimulates ideas and helps to cement learning.
As students work through the four changeable elements within the environment students discover, some elements are not normally found in certain habitats; for example if they opt to have it showing in the desert, a thought bubble appears above the animals head indicating that this is not ideal.
There are aspects of this resource that are not ideal, yet easily over come. Firstly the home page is very busy and may cause distractions for little people, this is easily overcome by creating a shortcut on the desk top or in favourites linked directly to the intended page. Secondly the circular nature of changing the elements, means that once a students finds the ideal habitat for a given creature, there is no way of recording their findings. Combining this resource with a worksheet would allow them to record their information and provide something concrete students to refer back to later.
I give this resource 4 stars!
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